And the LORD said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
- Genesis
Set the pace; others will follow.
- Maxim Reality (the black guy from Prodigy)
I dont know of any philosophical mechanism by which to determine ones duty to society, and in fact dont ascribe to any such concept as duty. But identifying the universe as a fundamentally amoral place need not restrict ones range of actions in such a way as to preclude something that approximates a sense of duty and, more to the point, the substantive actions that stem from such a sense. Consider the following:
1. Shit be all fucked up, to paraphrase Rousseau or perhaps Voltaire. Confirm this for yourself if youd like. For instance, we live in a certain republic wherein Barack Obama is widely considered to be some sort of wild-eyed peacenik despite the fact that he is actually escalating at least one unpopular war and maintaining another one at great cost to our own bankrupt nation; wherein such institutions as CNN are widely considered to be reasonable alternatives to other outlets of less sophistication; and wherein a bunch of other terrible, telling things are also the case. Having said that, we still live in a society superior to that of most any other one can point to throughout the whole of recorded history.
2. The superior society that we have created in the West in general and such humanist enclaves as New York in particular are the result not of blind historical cause-and-effect, but rather the conscious efforts of historically-aware men and women who actually went so far as to take actual action in service to their vision of a superior society. Allow human history to proceed in the usual fashion and you get the usual human history, which is to say inefficiency, tyranny, and death; take conscious control of human history and you get the unusual sort in which we currently live to our great relative benefit.
3. Ask yourself what you have done as an individual to deserve to live in such a society as this. Yes, you have refrained from enslaving your fellow man, from making up any damn-fool religions, from personally instigating nuclear war. This is all well and good, but the improvements of the sort that are necessary to the continued and increased success of our society are reliant on certain of its members doing something more than not blowing people up or forcing them to build pyramids on our behalf. I would go so far as to submit for the readers consideration the possibility that we ought to consider being a bit more proactive if we hope to be worthy of those who came before us, those who actually risked their lives and underwent assured sacrifice in order to provide for us the relative freedom and prosperity that we enjoy today and which we hope to enjoy tomorrow as well.
4. If you take the trouble to recycle, you have thereby proven that collective-yet-distributed effort in advancement of some social good is entirely realistic, as of course some great number of people engage in such efforts independent of either sticks or carrots. You may have also shown that your priorities are misplaced. The efficiency by which our society makes use and reuse of aluminum is pretty fucking low on the totem poll of those things that ought to be addressed in this unprecedented age, one which promises so much tumult and so much opportunity relative to the slow pace by which previous history has been made.
5. Recycle all you want if it makes you feel better. Bum cigarettes to strangers. Provide accurate directions to those who ask for them. These are all fine things. But ask yourself if you have considered all your options in terms of what you can realistically do to effect positive change in this, the civilization that you have been granted by virtue of the hard work of our predecessors. The answer, of course, is that you have not - no one has, the human mind not being some optimal tool of decision making but rather simply the only one available to us. Obviously, I cant offer the perfect solution, as I am incapable of coming up with such a thing, not being Plato, who at any rate was a fascist. I can offer you something more Socratic, perhaps, with a dash of quietism thrown in for good measure: I can offer you a viable plan whereby we may look upon the world as it is and rearrange it, to some extent or another, in order to form certain of its attributes into something close to what we would like it to be. This is not a radical plan; it is not even ambitious. It is, in fact, what every sentient being does every day. I merely propose that we do a better job of it.
A bit over three months ago, I proposed such a plan in Vanity Fair, although at the time the plan did not exist in any real form insomuch as that I was merely bluffing. I have since called my own bluff and actually concocted the plan in question, which I have described in part at Huffington Post, Skeptical Inquirer, and other outlets. It is known, for esoteric reasons, as Project PM, and you may learn more about it here, or by Googling it. It is worth noting that such terms as Googling would have been incomprehensible just 20 years ago; think hard upon the extent to which this is true for a great bulk of modern activity. Only a fool would underestimate the extent to which change is possible in this, the greatest of all ages. Likewise, only a fool would wait around for our obsolete institutions, run as they are in large part by obsolete individuals, to enact such change on our behalf. You may recall having been excited about Barack Obama, for instance, who has since sent 30,000 additional troops to Central Asia in order to better perpetuate The Great Game Redux on behalf of those misguided individuals who have ended up with power only by default, and largely by way of our own inertia. Fundamentally, the purpose of Project PM is to alter this state of affairs to some extent or another.
So far, I have recruited more than 50 people with varying skill sets, including lawyer, academics, security analysts, and individuals of no particular accomplishments but plenty of will and erudition, as well as a dozen bloggers and journalists with a combined monthly readership of several hundred thousand people. Soon, we will have many more; the system is designed to perpetuate itself. I would also like to have you, the Bushwick resident with talent that is not currently being used in any way that approaches its potential. I may be reached at barriticus@gmail.com.